Systems and methods for exploiting inter-cell multiplexing gain in wireless cellular systems via distributed input distributed output technology

ABSTRACT

A multiple antenna system (MAS) with multiuser (MU) transmissions (“MU-MAS”) exploiting inter-cell multiplexing gain via spatial processing to increase capacity in wireless communications networks.

CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application is a continuation of co-pending U.S. patent applicationSer. No. 13/797,950, filed Mar. 12, 2013.

RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application may be related to the following co-pending U.S. patentapplications/U.S. patents:

U.S. application Ser. No. 13/633,702, entitled “Systems and Methods forwireless backhaul in distributed-input distributed-output wirelesssystems”

U.S. application Ser. No. 13/475,598, entitled “Systems and Methods toenhance spatial diversity in distributed-input distributed-outputwireless systems”

U.S. application Ser. No. 13/233,006, entitled “System and Methods forplanned evolution and obsolescence of multiuser spectrum”

U.S. application Ser. No. 13/232,996, entitled “Systems and Methods toExploit Areas of Coherence in Wireless Systems”

U.S. application Ser. No. 13/464,648, entitled “System and Methods toCompensate for Doppler Effects in Distributed-Input Distributed OutputSystems”

U.S. application Ser. No. 12/917,257, entitled “Systems And Methods ToCoordinate Transmissions In Distributed Wireless Systems Via UserClustering”

U.S. application Ser. No. 12/802,988, entitled “Interference Management,Handoff, Power Control And Link Adaptation In Distributed-InputDistributed-Output (DIDO) Communication Systems”

U.S. application Ser. No. 12/802,974, entitled “System And Method ForManaging Inter-Cluster Handoff Of Clients Which Traverse Multiple DIDOClusters”

U.S. application Ser. No. 12/802,989, entitled “System And Method ForManaging Handoff Of A Client Between DifferentDistributed-Input-Distributed-Output (DIDO) Networks Based On DetectedVelocity Of The Client”

U.S. application Ser. No. 12/802,958, entitled “System And Method ForPower Control And Antenna Grouping In ADistributed-Input-Distributed-Output (DIDO) Network”

U.S. application Ser. No. 12/802,975, entitled “System And Method ForLink adaptation In DIDO Multicarrier Systems”

U.S. application Ser. No. 12/802,938, entitled “System And Method ForDIDO Precoding Interpolation In Multicarrier Systems”

U.S. application Ser. No. 12/630,627, entitled “System and Method ForDistributed Antenna Wireless Communications”

U.S. Pat. No. 8,170,081, issued May 1, 2012, entitled “System And MethodFor Adjusting DIDO Interference Cancellation Based On Signal StrengthMeasurements”

U.S. Pat. No. 8,160,121, issued Apr. 17, 2012, entitled, “System andMethod For Distributed Input-Distributed Output WirelessCommunications”;

U.S. Pat. No. 7,885,354, issued Feb. 8, 2011, entitled “System andMethod For Enhancing Near Vertical Incidence Skywave (“NVIS”)Communication Using Space-Time Coding.”

U.S. Pat. No. 7,711,030, issued May 4, 2010, entitled “System and MethodFor Spatial-Multiplexed Tropospheric Scatter Communications”;

U.S. Pat. No. 7,636,381, issued Dec. 22, 2009, entitled “System andMethod for Distributed Input Distributed Output Wireless Communication”;

U.S. Pat. No. 7,633,994, issued Dec. 15, 2009, entitled “System andMethod for Distributed Input Distributed Output Wireless Communication”;

U.S. Pat. No. 7,599,420, issued Oct. 6, 2009, entitled “System andMethod for Distributed Input Distributed Output Wireless Communication”;

U.S. Pat. No. 7,418,053, issued Aug. 26, 2008, entitled “System andMethod for Distributed Input Distributed Output Wireless Communication”;

BACKGROUND

In the last three decades, the wireless cellular market has experiencedincreasing number of subscribers worldwide as well as demand for betterservices shifting from voice to web-browsing and real-time HD videostreaming. This increasing demand for services that requires higher datarate, lower latency and improved reliability has driven a radicalevolution of wireless technologies through different standards.Beginning from the first generation analog AMPS and TACS (for voiceservice) in the early 1980s, to 2G and 2.5G digital GSM, IS-95 and GPRS(for voice and data services) in the 1990s, to 3G with UMTS and CDMA2000(for web-browsing) in the early 2000s, and finally LTE (for high-speedinternet connectivity) currently under deployment in different countriesworldwide.

Long-term evolution (LTE) is the standard developed by the 3^(rd)generation partnership project (3GPP) for fourth generation (4G)wireless cellular systems. LTE can achieve theoretically up to 4×improvement in downlink spectral efficiency over previous 3G and HSPA+standards by exploiting the spatial components of wireless channels viamultiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) technology. LTE-Advanced is theevolution of LTE, currently under standardization, that will enabletheoretically up to 8× increase in spectral efficiency over 3G standardsystems.

Despite this technology evolution, it is very likely that in the nextthree years wireless carriers will not be able to satisfy the growingdemand for data rate due to raising market penetration of smartphonesand tables, offering more data-hungry applications like real-time HDvideo streaming, video conferencing and gaming. It has been estimatedthat capacity of wireless networks will grow 5× in Europe from 2011 to2015 due to improved technologies such as LTE as well as more spectrummade available by the government [25]. For example, the FCC is planningto free 500 MHz of spectrum by 2020 (of which 300 MHz will be availableby 2015) to promote wireless Internet connectivity throughout the US aspart of the National Broadband Plan [24]. Unfortunately, the forecastfor capacity usage by 2015 is 23× over 2011 in Europe [25] and similarspectrum deficit is expected to happen in the US by 2014 [26-27]. As aresult of this data crunch, revenues for wireless carriers may dropbelow their CAPEX and OPEX with potentially devastating impact on thewireless market [28].

As capacity gains offered by LTE deployment and increased spectrumavailability are insufficient, the only foreseeable solution to preventthis upcoming spectrum crisis is to promote new wireless technologies[29]. LTE-Advanced (the evolution of LTE standard) promises additionalgains over LTE through more sophisticated MIMO techniques and byincreasing the density of “small cells” [30]. However, there are limitsto the number of cells that can fit a certain area without incurringinterference issues or increasing the complexity of the backhaul toallow coordination across cells.

One promising technology that will provide orders of magnitude increasein spectral efficiency over wireless links without the limitations ofconventional cellular systems is distributed-input distributed-output(DIDO) technology (see Related Patents and Applications as describedabove. The present invention describes DIDO technology employed in thecontext of cellular systems (such as LTE or LTE-Advanced), both withinand without the constraints of cellular standards, to providesignificant performance benefits over conventional wireless systems. Webegin with an overview on MIMO and review different spatial processingtechniques employed by LTE and LTE-Advanced. Then we show how thepresent invention provides significant capacity gains for nextgeneration wireless communications systems compared to prior artapproaches.

MIMO employs multiple antennas at the transmitter and receiver sides ofthe wireless link and uses spatial processing to improve linkreliability via diversity techniques (i.e., diversity gain) or providehigher data rate via multiplexing schemes (i.e., multiplexing gain)[1-2]. Diversity gain is a measure of enhanced robustness to signalfading, resulting in higher signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) for fixed datarate. Multiplexing gain is obtained by exploiting additional spatialdegrees of freedom of the wireless channel to increase data rate forfixed probability of error. Fundamental tradeoffs between diversity andmultiplexing in MIMO systems were described in [3-4].

In practical MIMO systems, link adaptation techniques can be used toswitch dynamically between diversity and multiplexing schemes based onpropagation conditions [20-23]. For example, link adaptation schemesdescribed in [22-23] showed that beamforming or Orthogonal Space-TimeBlock Codes (OSTBC) are preferred schemes in low SNR regime or channelscharacterized by low spatial selectivity. By contrast, spatialmultiplexing can provide significant gain in data rate for channels withhigh SNR and high spatial selectivity. For example, FIG. 1 shows thatcells can be divided in two regions: i) multiplexing region 101,characterized by high SNR (due to proximity to the cell tower or basestation) where the spatial degrees of freedom of the channel can beexploited via spatial multiplexing to increase data rate; ii) diversityregion 102 or cell-edge, where spatial multiplexing techniques are notas effective and diversity methods can be used to improve SNR andcoverage (yielding only marginal increase in data rate). Note that thecircle of the macrocell 103 in FIG. 1 labels the shaded center of thecircle as the “multiplexing region” and the unshaded outer region of thecircle as the “diversity region”. This same region designation is usedthroughout FIGS. 1,3-5, where the shaded region is the “multiplexingregion” and the unshaded region is the “diversity region”, even if theyare not labeled. For example, the same designation is used for thesmall-cell 104 in FIG. 1.

The LTE (Release 8) and LTE-Advanced (Release 10) standards define a setof ten transmission modes (TM) including either diversity ormultiplexing schemes [35, 85-86]:

-   -   Mode 1: Single antenna port, port 0    -   Mode 2: Transmit diversity    -   Mode 3: Large-delay cyclic delay diversity (CDD), extension of        open-loop spatial multiplexing for single-user MIMO (SU-MIMO)    -   Mode 4: Closed-loop spatial multiplexing for SU-MIMO    -   Mode 5: Multi-user MIMO (MU-MIMO)    -   Mode 6: Closed-loop spatial multiplexing, using a single        transmission layer □    -   Mode 7: Single antenna port, UE-specific RS (port 5) □    -   Mode 8: Single or dual-layer transmission with UE-specific RS        (ports 7 and/or 8)    -   Mode 9: Single or up to eight layers closed-loop SU-MIMO (added        in Release 10)    -   Mode 10: Multi-layer closed-loop SU-MIMO, up to eight layers        (added in Release 10)

Hereafter we describe diversity and multiplexing schemes commonly usedin cellular systems as well as specific methods employed in LTE asoutlined above, and compare them against techniques that are unique forDIDO communications. We first identify two types of transmissionmethods: i) intra-cell methods (exploiting micro-diversity in cellularsystems), using multiple antennas to improve link reliability or datarate within one cell; ii) inter-cell methods (exploitingmacro-diversity), allowing cooperation between cells to provideadditional diversity or multiplexing gains. Then we describe how thepresent invention provides significant advantages (including spectralcapacity gain) over prior art.

1. Intra-Cell Diversity Methods

Intra-cell diversity methods operate within one cell and are designed toincrease SNR in scenarios with poor link quality (e.g., users at thecell-edge subject to high pathloss from the central tower or basestation). Typical diversity schemes employed in MIMO communications arebeamforming [5-11] and orthogonal space-time block codes (OSTBC)[12-15].

Diversity techniques supported by the LTE standard are transmitdiversity, closed-loop rank-1 precoding and dedicated beamforming[31-35]. Transmit diversity scheme supports two or four transmitantennas over the downlink (DL) and only two antennas for the uplink(UL). In the DL channel, it is implemented via space-frequency blockcodes (SFBC) combined with frequency-switched transmit diversity (FSTD)to exploit space as well as frequency selectivity [31]. Rank-1 precodingcreates a dedicated beam to one user based on quantized weights selectedfrom a codebook (pre-designed using limited feedback techniques [36-42])to reduce the feedback overhead from the user equipment (UE) to the basetransceiver station (BTS 105 in FIG. 1, or eNodeB using LTEterminology). Alternatively, dedicated beamforming weights can becomputed based on UE-specific reference signal.

2. Intra-Cell Multiplexing Methods

MIMO multiplexing schemes [1,19] provide gain in data rate in high SNRregime and in scenarios with enough spatial degrees of freedom in thechannel (e.g., rich multipath environments with high spatial selectivity[16-18]) to support multiple parallel data streams over wireless links.

The LTE standard supports different multiplexing techniques forsingle-user MIMO (SU-MIMO) and multi-user MIMO (MU-MIMO) [31]. SU-MIMOschemes have two modes of operation: i) closed-loop, exploiting feedbackinformation from the UE to select the DL precoding weights; ii)open-loop, used when feedback from the UE is unavailable or the UE ismoving too fast to support closed-loop schemes. Closed-loop schemes usea set of pre-computed weights selected from a codebook. These weightscan support two or four transmit antennas as well as one to fourparallel data streams (identified by number of layers of the precodingmatrix), depending on the UE request and decision of the scheduler atthe BTS. LTE-Advanced will include new transmission modes up to MIMO 8×8to provide up to 8× increase in spectral efficiency via spatialprocessing [62].

MU-MIMO schemes are defined for both UL and DL channels [31,50]. In theUL, every UE sends a reference signal to the BTS (consisting ofcyclically shifted version of the Zadoff-Chu sequence [33]). Thosereference signals are orthogonal, such that the BTS can estimate thechannel from all UEs and demodulate data streams from multiple UEssimultaneously via spatial processing. In the DL, precoding weights fordifferent UEs are selected from codebooks based on the feedback from theUEs and the scheduler (similarly to closed-loop SU-MIMO schemes) andonly rank-1 precoding is allowed for every UE (e.g., each UE receivesonly one data stream).

Intra-cell multiplexing techniques employing spatial processing providesatisfactory performance only in propagation scenarios characterized byhigh SNR (or SINR) and high spatial selectivity (multipath-richenvironments). For conventional macrocells, these conditions may beharder to achieve as BTSs are typically far from the UEs and thedistribution of the SINR is typically centered at low values [43]. Inthese scenarios, MU-MIMO schemes or diversity techniques may be betterchoices than SU-MIMO with spatial multiplexing.

Other techniques and network solutions contemplated by LTE-Advanced toachieve additional multiplexing gain (without requiring spatialprocessing through MIMO) are: carrier aggregation (CA) and small cells.CA [30,44-47] combines different portions of the RF spectrum to increasesignal bandwidth up to 100 MHz [85], thereby yielding higher data rates.Intra-band CA combines different bands within the same portion of thespectrum. As such it can use the same RF chain for multiple channels,and multiple data streams are recombined in software. Inter-band CArequires different RF chains to operate at different portions of thespectrum as well as signal processing to recombine multiple data streamsfrom different bands.

The key idea of small cells [30,47] is to reduce the size ofconventional macro-cells, thereby allowing higher cell density andlarger throughput per area of coverage. Small-cells are typicallydeployed through inexpensive access points 106 with low powertransmission (as depicted in FIG. 1) as opposed to tall and expensivecell towers used for macro-cells. Two types of small cells are definedin LTE-Advanced: i) metrocells, for outdoor installation in urban areas,supporting up 32 to 64 simultaneous users; and ii) femtocells, forindoor use, can serve at most 4 active users. One advantage of smallcells is that the density of UEs close to the BTS is statisticallyhigher, yielding better SNR that can be exploited via spatialmultiplexing to increase data rate. There are, however, still manyconcerns about practical deployment of small cells, particularly relatedto the backhaul. In fact, it may be challenging to reach BTSs of everysmall cell via high-speed wireline connections, especially consideringthe high density of metrocells and femtocells in a given coverage area.While using Line-Of-Sight (LOS) backhaul to small cells can often beimplemented inexpensively, compared to wireline backhaul, there oftenare no practical LOS backhaul paths available for preferred small cellBTS placements, and there is no general solution for Non-Line-Of-Sight(NLOS) wireless backhaul to small cell BTSs. Moreover, small cellsrequire complex real-time coordination across BTSs to avoid interferenceas in self-organized networks (SON) [30,51-52] and sophisticatedcell-planning tools (even more complex than conventional cellularsystems, due to higher density of small cells) to plan their optimallocation [48,49]. Finally, handoff is a limiting factor for small cellsdeployment, particularly in scenarios where groups of subscribers switchcells at the same time, causing large amount of handoff overhead overthe backhaul, resulting in high latency and unavoidable dropped calls.

It can be trivially shown there is no practical general solution thatenables small cells to co-exist with macrocells and achieve optimal, ornecessarily even improved, throughput. Among the myriad of suchunsolvable situations is when a small cell is located such that its UEsunavoidably overlap with a macrocell transmission and the small cell andthe macrocell use the same frequencies to reach their respective UEs.Clearly in this situation, the macrocell transmission will interferewith the small cell transmission. While there may be some approach thatmitigates such interference for particular circumstances of a particularmacrocell, a particular small cell, the particular macrocell and smallcell UEs involved, the throughput requirements of those UEs, andenvironmental circumstances, etc., any such approach would be highlyspecific, not only to the static plan of the macrocell and small cell,but to the dynamic circumstances of a particular time interval.Typically, the full throughput of the channel to each UE cannot beachieved.

3. Inter-Cell Diversity Methods

In a heterogeneous network (HetNet) [90] where macro-cells coexist withsmall-cells (e.g., metro-cells, pico-cells and femto-cells) it isnecessary to employ different techniques to eliminate inter-cellinterference. While HetNets provide better coverage through small-cells,the gains in data rate are only marginal since they require sharing thespectrum through different forms of frequency reuse patterns or usingspatial processing to remove interference rather than achievemultiplexing gain. The LTE standards employ inter-cell interferencecoordination (ICIC) schemes to remove interference particularly at thecell-edge. There are two types of ICIC methods: cell-autonomous andcoordinated between BTSs.

Cell-autonomous ICIC schemes avoid inter-cell interference via differentfrequency reuse patterns depicted in FIG. 2, where the hexagonsrepresent the cells and the colors refer to different carrierfrequencies. Three types of schemes are considered in LTE: i) fullfrequency reuse (or reuse 1), where the cells utilize all the availablebandwidth as in FIG. 2a , thereby producing high interference at thecell-edge; ii) hard frequency reuse (HFR), where every cell is assignedwith a different frequency band as in FIG. 2b (with typical reuse factorof 3) to avoid interference across adjacent cells; iii) fractionalfrequency reuse (FFR), where the center of the cell is assigned with thewhole available bandwidth as in frequency reuse 1, whereas the cell-edgeoperates in HFR mode to mitigate inter-cell interference as in FIG. 2 c.

Coordinated ICIC methods enable cooperation across BTSs to improveperformance of wireless networks. These techniques are a special case ofmethods taught in Related Patents and Applications as described above toenable cooperation across wireless transceivers in the general case ofdistributed antenna networks for multiple UEs all using the samefrequency simultaneously. Cooperation across BTSs to remove inter-cellinterference for the particular case of cellular systems for a single UEat a given time at a given frequency was described in [53]. The systemin [53] divides every macrocell into multiple subcells and enablessoft-handoff across subcells by employing dedicated beamforming fromcoordinated BTSs to improve link robustness at a single UE at a singlefrequency, as it moves along the subcell boundaries.

More recently, this class of cooperative wireless cellular networks hasbeen defined in the MIMO literature as “network MIMO” or “coordinatedmulti-point” (CoMP) systems. Theoretical analysis and simulated resultson the benefits obtained in network MIMO by eliminating inter-cellinterference are presented in [54-61]. The key advantage of network MIMOand CoMP is to remove inter-cell interference in the overlapping regionsof the cells denoted as “interference region” 301 in FIG. 3 for the caseof macro-cells 302.

CoMP networks are actively becoming part of LTE-Advanced standard as asolution to mitigate inter-cell interference in next generation cellularnetworks [62-64]. Three CoMP solutions have been proposed so far in thestandard to remove inter-cell interference: i) coordinatedscheduling/beamforming (CS/CB), where the UE receives its data streamfrom only one BTS via beamforming and coordination across BTSs isenabled to remove interference via beamforming or scheduling techniques;ii) dynamic cell selection (DCS) that chooses dynamically the cell forevery UE on a per-subframe basis, transparently to the UE; iii) jointtransmission (JT), where data for given UE is jointly transmitted frommultiple BTSs to improve received signal quality and eliminateinter-cell interference. CoMP-JT yields larger gains than CoMP-CS/CB atthe expenses of higher overhead in the backhaul to enable coordinationacross BTSs.

4. Inter-Cell Multiplexing Methods

Prior art multi-user wireless systems add complexity and introducelimitations to wireless networks which result in a situation where agiven user's experience (e.g. available throughput, latency,predictability, reliability) is impacted by the utilization of thespectrum by other users in the area. Given the increasing demands foraggregate throughput within wireless spectrum shared by multiple users,and the increasing growth of applications that can rely upon multi-userwireless network reliability, predictability and low latency for a givenuser, it is apparent that prior art multi-user wireless technologysuffers from many limitations. Indeed, with the limited availability ofspectrum suitable for particular types of wireless communications (e.g.at wavelengths that are efficient in penetrating building walls), priorart wireless techniques will be insufficient to meet the increasingdemands for bandwidth that is reliable, predictable and low-latency.

Prior art intra-cell diversity and multiplexing methods can only provideup to a theoretical 4× increase in throughput over current cellularnetworks for LTE (through MIMO 4×4) or at most a theoretical 8× forLTE-Advanced (through MIMO 8×8), although higher orders of MIMO achievediminishing improvements in increasing throughput in a given multipathenvironment, particularly as UEs (such as smartphones) get smaller andmore constrained in terms of antenna placement. Other marginalthroughput gains in next generation cellular systems may be obtainedfrom additional spectrum allocation (e.g., FCC national broadband plan),exploited via carrier aggregation techniques, and more densedistribution of BTSs via small cell networks and SON [30,46]. All theabove techniques, however, still rely heavily on spectrum or timesharing techniques to enable multi-user transmissions, since thespectral efficiency gains obtained by spatial processing is limited.

While prior art inter-cell methods (e.g., network MIMO and CoMP systems[53-64]) can improve reliability of cellular networks by eliminatinginter-cell interference, their capacity gains are only marginal. Infact, those systems constrain power transmitted from every BTS to becontained within the cell boundaries and are only effective to eliminateinter-cell interference due to power leakage across cells. FIG. 3 showsone example of cellular networks with three BTSs, each one characterizedby its own coverage area or cell. The power transmitted from each BTS isconstrained to limit the amount of interference across cells, depictedin FIG. 3 by the areas where the cells overlap. As these systems operatein the low SINR regime at the interference region, their gains inspectral efficiency is only marginal, similarly to intra-cell schemesfor SU-MIMO. To truly obtain significant capacity gains in inter-cellcooperative networks, power constraints limited to cell-boundaries mustbe relaxed and spatial multiplexing techniques should be enabledthroughout the cells where the SINR is high (not just at the cell-edgewith poor SINR performance as in prior art approaches).

FIG. 4 shows the case where the power transmitted from the three BTSs401 all transmitting simultaneously at the same frequency is increased,thereby allowing a higher level of interference throughout the cell 402.In prior art systems, such interference would result in incoherentinterference (disrupting UE signal reception) throughout the interferingareas of the BTSs, but this interference is actually exploited in thepresent invention through novel inter-cell multiplexing methods usingspatial processing to create areas of coherent interference (enhancingUE signal reception) around every UE, thereby providing simultaneousnon-interfering data streams to every UE and increasing their SINRthroughout the cell.

The scenario depicted in FIG. 4 is described in [89] for the particularcase of cellular systems. The system in [89] consists of several BTSsidentifying different cells that are grouped into clusters. Cooperationis allowed only across BTSs from adjacent cells within the sameclusters. In this case it was shown that, as the power transmitted fromthe BTSs increases, there is a limit to the capacity (or spectralefficiency) achievable through inter-cell multiplexing methods. In fact,as the transmit power increases, the out-of-cluster interferenceincreases proportionally, producing a saturation regime for the SINR andconsequently for the capacity. As a consequence of this effect, thesystem in [89] can theoretically achieve at most 3× gain in capacity(i.e., at most three cells within the cluster) and any additional cellincluded in the cluster would reduce capacity due to increasedout-of-cluster interference (e.g., the case of 21 cells per clusteryields lower capacity than the case of 3 cells per cluster). We observethat the fundamental capacity limit in [89] holds because the BTSs areconstrained to predefined locations, as in cellular systems, andmultiplexing gain is achieved by increasing transmit power from theBTSs. To obtain theoretically unlimited capacity gain via inter-cellmultiplexing methods, the constraint on the BTS placement must beremoved, allowing the BTSs to be placed anywhere is convenient.

It would thus be desirable to provide a system that achieves orders ofmagnitudes increase in spectral efficiency exploiting inter-cellmultiplexing gain via spatial processing by removing any constraint onthe power transmitted from distributed BTSs 501 as well as on theirplacement. FIG. 5 shows one example where many additional access points502 are added to deliberately increase the level of incoherentinterference throughout the cell 503, that is exploited in the presentinvention to generate areas of coherent interference around UEs, therebyyielding theoretically unlimited inter-cell multiplexing gain. Theadditional access points are placed serendipitously wherever it isconvenient and are not constrained to any specific cell planning, as incellular systems described in prior art. In an exemplary embodiment ofthe invention, the serendipitous access points are distributed-inputdistributed-output (DIDO) access points and the inter-cell multiplexinggain is achieved through DIDO methods as described above and [77-78]. Inanother embodiment, the serendipitous access points are low powertransceivers, similar to inexpensive Wi-Fi access points or small-cells[30,47], thereby providing smaller areas of coverage overlappingthroughout the macro-cell as shown in FIG. 5.

We observe that prior art inter-cell methods [53-64] avoid incoherentinterference by intentionally limiting the transmit power from every BTSas in FIG. 3 and eliminate residual inter-cell interference (on theoverlapping areas between cells) via spatial processing, therebyproviding improved SINR and inter-cell diversity gain. We furtherobserve that [89] constrains BTS placement to cell planning whileincreasing transmit power, thereby limiting the achievable capacity dueto out-of-cluster interference, and as such it is still limited byinterference. By contrast, the present invention exploits incoherentinterference to create coherent interference around the UEs, bytransmitting higher power from every BTS serendipitously placed, therebyimproving signal quality at the UE that is necessary condition to obtaininter-cell multiplexing gain throughout the cell via spatial processing.As such, the systems described in prior art cannot be used to achieveunlimited inter-cell multiplexing gain via spatial processing, sincethere is not sufficient SINR throughout the cell (due to the limitedtransmit power from the BTSs or the out-of-cluster interference whentransmit power is increased) to enable inter-cell multiplexing methodsas in the present invention. Moreover, the systems described in priorart would be inoperable to achieve the multiplexing gain achieved in thepresent invention depicted in FIGS. 4-5, given that prior art systemswere designed to avoid inter-cell interference within the diversityregions shown in the shaded area of FIG. 1 and FIGS. 3-5 rather thanexploit inter-cell interference in the multiplexing regions to obtaininter-cell multiplexing gain as achieved in the present invention.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

A better understanding of the present invention can be obtained from thefollowing detailed description in conjunction with the drawings, inwhich:

FIG. 1 illustrates multiplexing and diversity regions for a macro-celland a small-cell.

FIG. 2a illustrates full frequency reuse pattern in conventionalcellular systems.

FIG. 2b illustrates hard frequency reuse (HFR) pattern in conventionalcellular systems.

FIG. 2c illustrates fractional frequency reuse (FFR) pattern inconventional cellular systems.

FIG. 3 illustrates the interference region between adjacent macro-cells.

FIG. 4 illustrates multiple BTSs transmitting at higher power toincrease the level of interference between cells.

FIG. 5 illustrates one example where many access points are added todeliberately increase the level of incoherent interference throughoutthe cell.

FIG. 6 illustrates the network elements in LTE networks.

FIG. 7a illustrates the LTE frame structure for FDD operation.

FIG. 7b illustrates the LTE frame structure for TDD operation.

FIG. 8a illustrates the LTE “resource elements” and “resource blocks” inthe OFDM DL channel.

FIG. 8b illustrates the LTE “resource elements” and “resource blocks” inthe SC-FDMA UL channel.

FIG. 9 illustrates one embodiment of a multi-user (MU) multiple antennasystem (MAS), or MU-MAS, consisting of antenna-clusters anduser-clusters.

FIG. 10 illustrates one embodiment of a MU-MAS wherein a different cellID is associated to every antenna-subcluster.

FIG. 11 illustrates one embodiment of a MU-MAS wherein the same set ofcell IDs are assigned to the antenna-subclusters with given repetitionpattern.

FIG. 12 illustrates the SNR distribution for practical deployment ofMU-MAS systems in downtown San Francisco, Calif., with sparsely anddensely populated areas.

FIG. 13 illustrates one embodiment of a MU-MAS consisting of CP,distributed BTSs and multiple UEs.

FIG. 14 illustrates one embodiment of a MU-MAS consisting of CP,distributed BTSs, multiple devices and one UE connected to the devicesas well as the BTSs via network interfaces.

FIG. 15 illustrates one embodiment of a MU-MAS wherein the UE is in acase that physically attaches to the user device.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

One solution to overcome many of the above prior art limitations is anembodiment of Distributed-Input Distributed-Output (DIDO) technology.DIDO technology is described in the following patents and patentapplications, all of which are assigned the assignee of the presentpatent and are incorporated by reference. These patents and applicationsare sometimes referred to collectively herein as the “Related Patentsand Applications.”

U.S. application Ser. No. 13/633,702, entitled “Systems and Methods forwireless backhaul in distributed-input distributed-output wirelesssystems”

U.S. application Ser. No. 13/475,598, entitled “Systems and Methods toenhance spatial diversity in distributed-input distributed-outputwireless systems”

U.S. application Ser. No. 13/233,006, entitled “System and Methods forplanned evolution and obsolescence of multiuser spectrum”

U.S. application Ser. No. 13/232,996, entitled “Systems and Methods toExploit Areas of Coherence in Wireless Systems”

U.S. application Ser. No. 13/464,648, entitled “System and Methods toCompensate for Doppler Effects in Distributed-Input Distributed OutputSystems”

U.S. application Ser. No. 12/917,257, entitled “Systems And Methods ToCoordinate Transmissions In Distributed Wireless Systems Via UserClustering”

U.S. application Ser. No. 12/802,988, entitled “Interference Management,Handoff, Power Control And Link Adaptation In Distributed-InputDistributed-Output (DIDO) Communication Systems”

U.S. application Ser. No. 12/802,974, entitled “System And Method ForManaging Inter-Cluster Handoff Of Clients Which Traverse Multiple DIDOClusters”

U.S. application Ser. No. 12/802,989, entitled “System And Method ForManaging Handoff Of A Client Between DifferentDistributed-Input-Distributed-Output (DIDO) Networks Based On DetectedVelocity Of The Client”

U.S. application Ser. No. 12/802,958, entitled “System And Method ForPower Control And Antenna Grouping In ADistributed-Input-Distributed-Output (DIDO) Network”

U.S. application Ser. No. 12/802,975, entitled “System And Method ForLink adaptation In DIDO Multicarrier Systems”

U.S. application Ser. No. 12/802,938, entitled “System And Method ForDIDO Precoding Interpolation In Multicarrier Systems”

U.S. application Ser. No. 12/630,627, entitled “System and Method ForDistributed Antenna Wireless Communications”

U.S. Pat. No. 8,170,081, issued May 1, 2012, entitled “System And MethodFor Adjusting DIDO Interference Cancellation Based On Signal StrengthMeasurements”

U.S. Pat. No. 8,160,121, issued Apr. 17, 2012, entitled, “System andMethod For Distributed Input-Distributed Output WirelessCommunications”;

U.S. Pat. No. 7,885,354, issued Feb. 8, 2011, entitled “System andMethod For Enhancing Near Vertical Incidence Skywave (“NVIS”)Communication Using Space-Time Coding.”

U.S. Pat. No. 7,711,030, issued May 4, 2010, entitled “System and MethodFor Spatial-Multiplexed Tropospheric Scatter Communications”;

U.S. Pat. No. 7,636,381, issued Dec. 22, 2009, entitled “System andMethod for Distributed Input Distributed Output Wireless Communication”;

U.S. Pat. No. 7,633,994, issued Dec. 15, 2009, entitled “System andMethod for Distributed Input Distributed Output Wireless Communication”;

U.S. Pat. No. 7,599,420, issued Oct. 6, 2009, entitled “System andMethod for Distributed Input Distributed Output Wireless Communication”;

U.S. Pat. No. 7,418,053, issued Aug. 26, 2008, entitled “System andMethod for Distributed Input Distributed Output Wireless Communication”;

To reduce the size and complexity of the present patent application, thedisclosure of some of the Related Patents and Applications is notexplicitly set forth below. Please see the Related Patents andApplications for a full description of the disclosure.

The present invention describes system and methods to exploit inter-cellmultiplexing gain in wireless communications networks via spatialprocessing, employing a multiple antenna system (MAS) with multi-user(MU) transmissions (a Multi-User Multiple Antenna System, or “MU-MAS”),where the multiple antennas are placed serendipitously. In oneembodiment of the invention, the power transmitted from the multipleantennas is constrained to minimize interference at cell boundaries (asin conventional cellular systems) and spatial processing methods areemployed only to eliminate inter-cell interference. In anotherembodiment of the invention, the power transmitted from the multipleantennas is not constrained to any particular power level (as long astheir power emission level falls within the regulatory, safety orpractical (e.g. available power, transmitter and/or antennaspecifications) limits), thereby creating intentionally higher levels ofinter-cell interference throughout the cell that is exploited to achieveinter-cell multiplexing gain and increase the capacity of the wirelesscommunications network.

In one embodiment, the wireless communications network is a cellularnetwork as in FIGS. 1 and 3, such as a cellular network based on LTEstandards and the multiple antennas serendipitously deployed aretransceivers for macro-cells or small-cells. In another embodiment ofthe invention, the wireless communications network is not constrained toany particular cell layout and the cell boundaries can extend overlarger areas as in FIGS. 4-5. For example, the wireless communicationsnetwork could be a wireless local area network (WLAN) with multipleantennas being WiFi access points, or a mesh, ad-hoc or sensor network,or a distributed antenna system, or a DIDO system with access pointsplaced serendipitously without any transmit power constraint. But, suchexample network structures should not be considered as limiting thegeneral applicability of the present invention to wirelesscommunications networks. The present invention applies to any wirelessnetwork where multiplexing gain is achieved by transmitting signals frommultiple antennas that interfere where received by multiple UEs so as tocreate simultaneous non-interfering data streams to multiple UEs.

The MU-MAS consists of a centralized processor, a network and Mtransceiver stations (or distributed antennas) communicating wirelesslyto N client devices or UEs. The centralized processor unit receives Nstreams of information with different network content (e.g., videos,web-pages, video games, text, voice, etc., streamed from Web servers orother network sources) intended for different client devices. Hereafter,we use the term “stream of information” to refer to any stream of datasent over the network containing information that can be demodulated ordecoded as a standalone stream, according to certain modulation/codingscheme or protocol, to produce any data, including but not limited toaudio, Web and video content. In one embodiment, the stream ofinformation is a sequence of bits carrying network content that can bedemodulated or decoded as a standalone stream.

The centralized processor utilizes precoding transformation to combine(according to algorithms, such as those described in the Related Patentsand Applications) the N streams of information from the network contentinto M streams of bits. By way of example, but not limitation, theprecoding transformation can be linear (e.g., zero-forcing [65],block-diagonalization [66-67], matrix inversion, etc.) or non-linear(e.g., dirty-paper coding [68-70] or Tomlinson-Harashima precoding[71-72], lattice techniques or trellis precoding [73-74], vectorperturbation techniques [75-76]). Hereafter, we use the term “stream ofbits” to refer to any sequence of bits that does not necessarily containany useful bit of information and as such cannot be demodulated ordecoded as a standalone stream to retrieve the network content. In oneembodiment of the invention, the stream of bits is the complex basebandsignal produced by the centralized processor and quantized over givennumber of bits to be sent to one of the M transceiver stations.

Precoding is computed at the centralized processor by employing theChannel State Information (CSI) and applied over the DL or UL channelsto multiplex data streams to or from multiple users. In one embodimentof the invention, the centralized processor is aware of the CSI betweenthe distributed antennas and the client devices, and utilizes the CSI toprecode data sent over the DL or UL channels. In the same embodiment,the CSI is estimated at the client devices and fed back to thedistributed antennas. In another embodiment, the DL-CSI is derived atthe distributed antennas from the UL-CSI using radio frequency (RF)calibration and exploiting UL/DL channel reciprocity.

In one embodiment, the MU-MAS is a distributed-input distributed-output(DIDO) system as described in Related Patents and Patent Applications.In another embodiment, the MU-MAS depicted in FIG. 13 consists of:

User Equipment (UE) 1301: An RF transceiver for fixed and/or mobileclients receiving data streams over the downlink (DL) channel from thebackhaul and transmitting data to the backhaul via the uplink (UL)channel

Base Transceiver Station (BTS) 1302: The BTSs interface the backhaulwith the wireless channel. BTSs of one embodiment are access pointsconsisting of Digital-to-Analog Converter (DAC)/Analog-to-DigitalConverter (ADC) and radio frequency (RF) chain to convert the basebandsignal to RF. In some cases, the BTS is a simple RF transceiver equippedwith power amplifier/antenna and the RF signal is carried to the BTS viaRF-over-fiber technology as described in Related Patents andApplications.

Controller (CTR) 1303: A CTR is one particular type of BTS designed forcertain specialized features such as transmitting training signals fortime/frequency synchronization of the BTSs and/or the UEs,receiving/transmitting control information from/to the UEs, receivingthe channel state information (CSI) or channel quality information fromthe UEs. One or multiple CTR stations can be included in any MU-MASsystem. When multiple CTRs are available, the information to or fromthose stations can be combined to increase diversity and improve linkquality. In one embodiment, the CSI is received from multiple CTRs viamaximum ratio combining (MRC) techniques to improve CSI demodulation. Inanother embodiment, the control information is sent from multiple CTRsvia maximum ratio transmission (MRT) to improve SNR at the receiverside. The scope of the invention is not limited to MRC or MRT, and anyother diversity technique (such as antenna selection, etc.) can beemployed to improve wireless links between CTRs and UEs.

Centralized Processor (CP) 1304: The CP is a server interfacing theInternet or other types of external networks 1306 with the backhaul. Inone embodiment, the CP computes the MU-MAS baseband processing and sendsthe waveforms to the distributed BTSs for DL transmission

Base Station Network (BSN) 1305: The BSN is the network connecting theCP to the distributed BTSs carrying information for either the DL or theUL channel. The BSN is a wireline or a wireless network or a combinationof the two. For example, the BSN is a DSL, cable, optical fiber network,or Line-of-Sight (LOS) or Non-Line-of-Sight (NLOS) wireless link.Furthermore, the BSN is a proprietary network, or a local area network,or the Internet.

Hereafter we describe how the above MU-MAS framework is incorporatedinto the LTE standard for cellular systems (and also non-cellular systemutilizing LTE protocols) to achieve additional gains in spectralefficiency. We begin with a general overview of LTE framework andmodulation techniques employed in the DL and UL channels. Then weprovide a brief description of the physical layer frame structure andresource allocation in the LTE standard. Finally, we define MU-MASprecoding methods for downlink (DL) and uplink (UL) channels inmulti-user scenarios using the LTE framework. For the DL schemes, wepropose two solutions: open-loop and closed-loop DIDO schemes.

LTE is designed with a flat network architecture (as opposed ahierarchical architecture from previous cellular standards) to provide:reduced latency, reduced packet losses via ARQ, reduced call setup time,improved coverage and throughput via macro-diversity. The networkelements in LTE networks depicted in FIG. 6 are per [79]:

-   -   GW (gateway): is the router connecting the LTE network to        external networks (i.e., the Internet). The GW is split into        serving gateway (S-GW) 601 that terminates the E-UTRAN interface        608 and PDN gateway (P-GW) 602 being the interface with external        networks. The S-GW and P-GW are part of the so called evolved        packet core (EPC) 609;    -   MME (mobility management entity) 603: manages mobility, security        parameters and UE identity. The MME is also part of the LTE EPC;    -   eNodeB (enhanced Node-B) 604: is the base station handling radio        resource management, user mobility and scheduling;    -   UE (user equipment) 605: is the mobile station.    -   S1 and X2 interfaces (606 and 607): are the wireline or wireless        backhauls between the MME and eNodeBs (S1-MME), the S-GW and        eNodeBs (S1-U) and between multiple eNodeBs (X2).

In one embodiment of the invention, the MU-MAS network is an LTE networkwherein the UE is the LTE UE, the BTS is the LTE eNodeB, the CTR is theLTE eNodeB or MME, the CP is the LTE GW, the BSN is the S1 or X1interface. Hereafter we use the terms distributed antennas, BTS andeNodeB interchangeably to refer to any base station in MU-MAS, DIDO orLTE systems.

The LTE frame has duration of 10 msec and consists of ten subframes asdepicted in FIG. 7 [33,80]. Every subframe is divided in two slots ofduration 0.5 msec each. The LTE standards defines two types of frames:i) type 1 for FDD operation as in FIG. 7a ), where all subframes areassigned either for the DL or UL channels; ii) type 2 for TDD operationas in FIG. 7b ), where, part of the subframes are assigned to the DL andpart to the UL (depending on the selected configuration), whereas a fewsubframes are reserved for “special use”. These is at least one specialsubframe per frame and it consists of three fields: i) downlink pilottime slot (DwPTS) reserved for DL transmission; ii) guard period (GP);iii) uplink pilot time slot (UpPTS), for UL transmission.

LTE employs orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) andorthogonal frequency division multiple access (OFDMA) modulation for theDL and single-carrier frequency division multiple access (SC-FDMA) forthe UL. The “resource element” (RE) is the smallest modulation structurein LTE and consists of one OFDM subcarrier in frequency and one OFDMsymbol duration in time, as shown in FIG. 8a for the DL channel and inFIG. 8b for the UL channel. The “resource block” (RB) consists of 12subcarriers in frequency and one 0.5 msec slot in time (consisting of 3to 7 OFDM symbol periods, depending on DL versus UL channel and type ofcyclic prefix). Resource blocks for every UE are assigned on a subframebasis. Since the MU-MAS in the present invention uses spatial processingto send multiple data streams to different UEs, at every subframe allresource blocks can be allocated to the same UE. In one embodiment, allor a subset of resource blocks are allocated to every UE andsimultaneous non-interfering data streams are sent to the UEs viaprecoding.

To setup the link between the BTS and the UEs, the LTE standard definesthe synchronization procedure. The BTS sends two consecutive signals tothe UE: the primary synchronization signal (P-SS) sent over the primarysynchronization channel (PSCH) and the secondary synchronization signal(S-SS) sent over the secondary synchronization channel (SSCH). Bothsignals are used by the UE for time/frequency synchronization as well asto retrieve the cell ID. The P-SS consists of length-63 Zadoff-Chusequence from which the UE derives the physical layer ID (0 to 2). TheS-SS is an interleaved concatenation of two length-31 binary sequencesand is used to derive the cell ID group number (0 to 167). From the twoidentity numbers above, the UE derives the physical cell ID (PCI,defined from 0 to 503).

In the MU-MAS system described in the present invention, there are nocell boundaries as the power transmitted from the BTSs is increasedintentionally to produce interference that is exploited to create areasof coherence around the UEs. In the present invention, different BTSsare grouped into “antenna-clusters” or “DIDO-clusters” as defined inrelated U.S. Pat. No. 8,170,081, issued May 1, 2012, entitled “SystemAnd Method For Adjusting DIDO Interference Cancellation Based On SignalStrength Measurements”. For example, FIG. 9 shows the mainantenna-cluster 901 and one adjacent antenna-cluster 902. Everyantenna-cluster consists of multiple BTSs 903.

The cell ID can be used in MU-MAS and DIDO systems to differentiate theantenna-clusters. In one embodiment of the invention, the same cell IDis transmitted from all BTSs of the same antenna-cluster via the P-SSand S-SS. In the same embodiment, different antenna-clusters employdifferent cell IDs. In another embodiment of the invention, all BTSswithin the same antenna-cluster 1001 are grouped into“antenna-subclusters” 1003 depicted in FIG. 10 with different shadedcolors and a different cell ID 1004 is associated to everyantenna-subcluster. In one embodiment, the antenna-subclusters aredefined statically according to predefined cluster planning or based onGPS positioning information. In another embodiment, theantenna-subclusters are defined dynamically based on measurements ofrelative signal strength between BTSs or GPS positioning information. Ina different embodiment of the invention, a different cell ID is assignedto every area of coherence (described in related co-pending U.S.application Ser. No. 13/232,996, entitled “Systems and Methods toExploit Areas of Coherence in Wireless Systems”) associated to the UEs.

When all BTSs within the same antenna-cluster or antenna-subclustertransmit the LTE broadcast channels (e.g., P-SS and S-SS) to the UEs,destructive interference may degrade the performance of time orfrequency synchronization enabled by the broadcast channel. Destructiveinterference may be caused by multipaths generated from spatiallydistributed BTSs that recombine incoherently at some UE locations. Toavoid or mitigate this effect, in one embodiment of the invention, onlyone BTS out of all BTSs within the same antenna-cluster orantenna-subcluster transmits the LTE broadcast channels (e.g., P-SS andS-SS) to all UEs. In the same embodiment, the BTS that transmits the LTEbroadcast channels is selected to maximize the power received at the UEsover the broadcast channels. In another embodiment, only a limited setof BTSs is selected to transmit simultaneously the LTE broadcastchannels to all UEs, such that destructive interference is avoided atthe UE. In a different embodiment of the invention, the LTE broadcastchannels are sent at higher power than the payload to reach all the UEswithin the same antenna-cluster or antenna-subcluster.

As described above, LTE-Advanced supports carrier aggregation (CA)schemes to increase data rate over the DL channel. In MU-MASs, CA can beused in combination with precoding to increase per-user data rate. Inone embodiment of this invention, transmit precoding is applied todifferent portions of the RF spectrum (inter-band CA) or different bandswithin the same portion of the spectrum (intra-band CA) to increaseper-user data rate. When employing inter-band CA, pathloss at differentbands may change significantly as those bands are centered at differentcarrier frequencies. In conventional LTE cellular systems, frequencybands at lower carrier frequencies may experience lower pathloss thanhigher carrier frequencies. Hence, applying inter-band CA in cellularsystems may cause undesired inter-cell interference at lower carrierfrequencies. By contrast, the MU-MAS in the present invention is notlimited by interference at the cell boundary as the BTSs are distributedand there is no concept of cell. This more flexible system layout allowsdifferent methods for inter-band CA in MU-MAS. In one embodiment of thepresent invention, the MU-MAS enables inter-band CA by employing one setof BTSs to operate at lower carrier frequencies and another set of BTSsto operate at higher carrier frequencies, such that the two setsintersect or one set is the subset of the other. In another embodiment,the MU-MAS with precoding employs CA methods in conjunction withfrequency hopping patterns to improve robustness againstfrequency-selective fading or interference.

1. Downlink Closed-Loop MU-MAS Precoding Methods in LTE

MU-MAS closed-loop schemes can be used either in time-division duplex(TDD) or frequency division duplex (FDD) systems. In FDD systems, DL andUL channels operate at different frequencies and therefore the DLchannel state information (CSI) must be estimated at the UE side andreported back to the CP through the BTSs or the CTRs via the UL channel.In TDD systems, DL and UL channels are set at the same frequency and thesystem may employ either closed-loop techniques or open-loop schemesexploiting channel reciprocity (as described in the following section).The main disadvantage of closed-loop schemes is they require feedback,resulting in larger overhead for control information over the UL.

The general mechanism for closed-loop schemes in MU-MASs is described asfollows: i) the BTSs send signaling information to the UEs over the DL;ii) the UEs exploit that signaling information to estimate the DL CSIfrom all the “active BTSs”; iii) the UEs quantize the DL CSI or usecodebooks to select the precoding weights to be used for the nexttransmission; iv) the UEs send the quantized CSI or the codebook indexto the BTSs or CTRs via the UL channel; v) the BTSs or CTRs report theCSI information or codebook index to the CP that calculates theprecoding weights for data transmission over the DL. The “active BTSs”are defined as the set of BTSs that are reached by given UE. Forexample, in related co-pending U.S. application Ser. No. 12/802,974,entitled “System And Method For Managing Inter-Cluster Handoff OfClients Which Traverse Multiple DIDO Clusters” and related co-pendingU.S. application Ser. No. 12/917,257, entitled “Systems And Methods ToCoordinate Transmissions In Distributed Wireless Systems Via UserClustering” we defined the “user-cluster” 905 as the set of BTSs thatare reached by given UE, as depicted in FIG. 9. The number of activeBTSs are limited to a user-cluster so as to reduce the amount of CSI tobe estimated from the BTSs to given UE, thereby reducing the feedbackoverhead over the UL and the complexity of the MU-MAS precodingcalculation at the CP.

As described at paragraph [0083], MU-MAS precoding employs either linearor non-linear methods. In the case of non-linear methods (e.g.,dirty-paper coding [68-70] or Tomlinson-Harashima precoding [71-72],lattice techniques or trellis precoding [73-74], vector perturbationtechniques [75-76]), successive interference cancellation is applied atthe transmitter to avoid inter-user interference. In this case theprecoding matrix is computed accounting for the CSI to all the UEswithin the antenna-cluster. Alternatively, linear precoding methods(e.g., zero-forcing [65], block-diagonalization [66-67], matrixinversion, etc.) can be used on a user-cluster basis, since theprecoding weights for every UE are computed independent on the otherUEs. Depending on the number of UEs and eNodeBs inside theantenna-cluster and user-clusters, linear versus non-linear precodingmethods offer different computational performance. For example, if theMU-MAS consists of K UEs per antenna-cluster, M eNodeBs perantenna-cluster and C eNodeBs per user-cluster, the complexity of linearprecoding is O(K*C³) whereas for non-linear precoding it is O(M*K²). Itis thus desirable to develop a method that dynamically switches betweenthe two types of precoding techniques based on the number if UEs andeNodeBs in MU-MASs to reduce the computational complexity at the CP. Inone embodiment of the invention, the MU-MAS employs linear precodingmethods. In another embodiment, the MU-MAS employs non-linear precodingmethods. In the same embodiment of the invention, the MU-MAS dynamicallyswitches between linear and non-linear precoding methods based on thenumber of UEs and eNodeBs in the antenna-clusters and user-clusters toreduce computational complexity at the CP. In a different embodiment,the MU-MAS switches between precoding multiplexing methods for UEsexperiencing good channel quality (e.g., in the proximity of eNodeBs)and beamforming or diversity methods for UEs with poor link quality(e.g., far away from the eNodeBs).

1.1 Downlink MU-MAS Signaling Methods within the LTE Standard

The LTE standard defines two types of reference signals (RS) that can beused for DL signaling in closed-loop schemes [33,50,82-83]: i)cell-specific reference signal (CRS); ii) UE specific RS such as channelstate information (CSI) reference signal (CSI-RS) and demodulation RS(DM-RS). The cell-specific RS is not precoded, whereas the UE-specificRS is precoded [50]. CRS is used in LTE Release 8 that employsSU/MU-MIMO codebook-based techniques with up to four antennas in everycell. LTE-Advanced Release 10 supports non-codebook based SU/MU-MIMOschemes with up to eight transmit antennas as well as CoMP schemes withantennas distributed over different cells. As such, Release 10 allowsfor more flexible signaling schemes via CSI-RS. In the presentinvention, we describe how either types of signaling schemes can be usedin MU-MAS systems to enable precoding.

1.1.1 MU-MAS Signaling Using CRS

The CRS is employed in LTE (Release 8) systems to estimate the CSI fromall transmit antennas at the BTS to the UE [80,84]. The CRS is obtainedas the product of a two-dimensional orthogonal sequence and atwo-dimensional pseudo-random numerical (PRN) sequence. There are 3orthogonal sequences (i.e., placed on orthogonal sets of OFDMsubcarriers) and 168 possible PRN sequences, for a total of 504different CRS sequences. Every sequence uniquely identifies one cell.Each of the three orthogonal CRSs is associated to one of the threephysical layer IDs (0 to 2) that generate a different cell ID, asexplained in the previous subsection. The CRS is transmitted within thefirst and third-last OFDM symbol of every slot, and every sixthsubcarrier. Orthogonal patterns in time and frequency are designed forevery transmit antenna of the BTS, for the UE to uniquely estimate theCSI from each of transmit antennas. Release 8 defines up to fourorthogonal patters per CRS, one for each of the four transmit antennasemployed in MIMO 4×4. This high density of CRS in time and frequency(i.e., sent every slot of 0.5 msec, and every sixth subcarrier),producing 5% overhead, was designed intentionally to support scenarioswith fast channel variations over time and frequency [83].

In Release 8, since there are up to 3 orthogonal CRSs with 4 orthogonalpatterns each for multi-antenna modes (or 6 orthogonal CRSs for singleantenna mode), it is possible to discriminate up to 12 transmit antennaswithin the same coverage area, without causing interference to the CRS.In one embodiment of the invention, the antenna-cluster 1001 is dividedinto three antenna-subclusters 1005 as in FIG. 10. Different physicallayer IDs (or cell IDs) are associated to each of theantenna-subclusters, such that each antenna-subcluster is assigned withone of the three orthogonal CRSs with four orthogonal patterns (i.e.,each antenna-subcluster can support up to four BTS without causinginterference to the CRS from other BTSs). In this embodiment, everycluster can support up to 12 BTSs without causing interference to theCRS.

In scenarios where more than twelve BTSs are placed within the samecluster, it is desirable to increase the number of available orthogonalCRSs to support larger number of active BTSs (i.e., BTSs thatsimultaneously transmit precoded signals to the UEs). One way to achievethat is to define more than three antenna-subclusters 1003 perantenna-cluster 1101 and assign the same three physical layer IDs (orcell ID 1104 from 0 to 2) to the antenna-subclusters 1103 with arepetition pattern as shown in FIG. 11. We observe that theantenna-subclusters may come in different shapes and are defined in sucha way that every user-cluster 1102 cannot reach two antenna-subclusterswith the same physical layer ID, thereby avoiding interference to theCRS. For example, one way to achieve that is to define the area of theantenna-subcluster 1103 larger than the user-cluster 1102 and avoid thatadjacent antenna-subcluster use the same physical layer ID. In oneembodiment of the invention, the multiple antenna-subclusters are placedwithin the same antenna-cluster with repetition patterns such that theirrespective CRSs do not interfere, thereby enabling simultaneousnon-interfering transmissions from more than twelve BTSs.

In practical MU-MAS systems, it may be the case that every UE sees morethan only four BTSs within its user-cluster. For example, FIG. 12 showsthe SNR distribution for practical deployment of DIDO or MU-MAS systemsin downtown San Francisco, Calif. The propagation model is based on 3GPPpathloss/shadowing model [81] and assumes a carrier frequency of 900MHz. The dots in the map indicate the location of the DIDO-BTSs, whereasthe dark circle represents the user-cluster (with the UE being locatedat the center of the circle). In sparsely populated areas 1201, the UEsees only a few BTSs within its user-cluster (e.g., as low as three BTSsfor the example in FIG. 12), whereas in densely populated areas 1202each user-cluster may comprise as many as 26 BTSs as in FIG. 12.

The high redundancy of the CRS can be exploited in MU-MASs to enable CSIestimation from any number of transmit antennas greater than four. Forexample, if the channel is fixed-wireless or characterized by lowDoppler effects, there is no need to compute the CSI from all fourtransmit antennas every 0.5 msec (slot duration). Likewise, if thechannel is frequency-flat, estimating the CSI every sixth subcarrier isredundant. In that case, the resource elements (RE) occupied by theredundant CRS can be re-allocated for other transmit antennas or BTSs inthe MU-MAS. In one embodiment of the invention, the system allocatesresource elements of redundant CRS to extra antennas or BTSs in theMU-MAS system. In another embodiment, the system estimates time andfrequency selectivity of the channel and dynamically allocates the CRSfor different BTSs or only the BTSs within the user-cluster to differentresource elements.

The number of BTSs included in every user-cluster depends on the signalpower level measured at the UE from all BTSs in the user-clusterrelative to the noise power level, or signal-to-noise ratio (SNR). Inone embodiment, the UE estimates the SNR from all BTSs in itsneighborhood and selects the BTSs that belong to its user-cluster basedon the SNR information. In another embodiment, the CP is aware of theSNR from the BTSs to every UE (based on feedback information from theUEs or information obtained from the UL channel, assuming UL/DL channelreciprocity) and selects the set of BTSs to be included in everyuser-cluster.

The number of BTSs included in every user-cluster determines theperformance of the MU-MAS methods described in the present invention.For example, if the number of BTSs per user-cluster is low, the UEexperiences higher level of out-of-cluster interference, resulting inhigh signal-to-interference-plus-noise ratio (SINR) and low data rate.Similarly, if large number of BTSs is selected for every user-cluster,the SNR measured at the UE from the BTSs at the edge of the user-clusteris low and may be dominated by the out-of-cluster interference fromadjacent BTSs outside the user-cluster. There is an optimal number ofBTSs per user-cluster that produces the highest SINR and data rate. Inone embodiment of the invention, the CP selects the optimal number ofBTSs per user-cluster to maximize SINR and data rate to the UE. Inanother embodiment of the invention, the BTSs per user-cluster aredynamically selected to adapt to the changing conditions of thepropagation environment or UE mobility.

Another drawback of using large number of BTSs per user-cluster is highcomputational load. In fact, the more BTSs in the user-cluster thelarger the computation complexity of the MU-MAS precoder. In oneembodiment of the inventions, the BTSs per user-cluster are selected toachieve optimal tradeoff between SINR or data rate performance andcomputational complexity of the MU-MAS precoder. In another embodiment,the BTSs per user-cluster are dynamically selected based on tradeoffsbetween propagation conditions and computational resources available inthe MU-MAS.

1.1.2 MU-MAS Signaling Using CSI-RS and DM-RS

In the LTE-Advanced (Release 10) standard the CSI-RS is used by every UEto estimate the CSI from the BTSs [33,83]. The standard definesorthogonal CSI-RS for different transmitters at the BTS, so that the UEcan differentiate the CSI from different BTSs. Up to eight transmitantennas at the BTS are supported by the CSI-RS as in Tables6.10.5.2-1,2 in [33]. The CSI-RS is sent with a periodicity that rangesbetween 5 and 80 subframes (i.e., CSI-RS send every 5 to 80 msec) as inTables 6.10.5.3-1 in [33]. The periodicity of the CSI-RS in LTE-Advancedwas designed intentionally larger than the CRS in LTE to avoid excessiveoverhead of control information, particularly for legacy LTE terminalsunable to make use of these extra resources. Another reference signalused for CSI estimation is to demodulation RS (DM-RS). The DM-RS is ademodulation reference signal intended to a specific UE and transmittedonly in the resource block assigned for transmission to that UE.

When more than eight antennas (maximum number of transmitters supportedby the LTE-Advanced standard) are within the user-cluster, alternativetechniques must be employed to enable DIDO precoding while maintainingsystem compliance to the LTE-Advanced standard. In one embodiment of theinvention, every UE uses the CSI-RS or the DM-RS or combination of bothto estimate the CSI from all active BTSs in its own user-cluster. In thesame embodiment, the DIDO system detects the number of BTSs within theuser-cluster and whether or not the user-cluster is compliant to theLTE-Advanced standard (supporting at most eight antennas). If it notcompliant, the DIDO system employs alternative techniques to enable DLsignaling from the BTSs to the current UE. In one embodiment, thetransmit power from the BTSs is reduced until at most eight BTSs arereachable by the UE within its user-cluster. This solution, however, mayresult in reduction of data rate as coverage would be reduced.

Another solution is to divide the BTSs in the user-cluster in subsetsand send one set of CSI-RS for every subset at a time. For example, ifthe CSI-RS periodicity is 5 subframes (i.e., 5 msec) as in Table6.10.5.3-1 in [33], every 5 msec the CSI-RS is sent from a new subset ofBTSs. Note that this solution works as long as the CSI-RS periodicity isshort enough to cover all BTS subsets within the channel coherence timeof the UE (which is a function of the Doppler velocity of the UE). Forexample, if the selected CSI-RS periodicity is 5 msec and the channelcoherence time is 100 msec, it is possible to define up to 20 BTSsubsets of 8 BTS each, adding up to a total of 160 BTSs within theuser-cluster. In another embodiment of the invention, the DIDO systemestimates the channel coherence time of the UE and decides how many BTSscan be supported within the user-cluster for given CSI-RS periodicity,to avoid degradation due to channel variations and Doppler effect.

The solutions for CSI-RS proposed so far are all compliant with the LTEstandard and can be deployed within the framework of conventional LTEsystems. For example, the proposed method that allows more than eightantennas per user-cluster would not require modifications of the UE LTEhardware and software implementation, and only slight modification ofthe protocols used at the BTSs and CP to enable selection of BTSs subsetat any given time. These modifications can be easily implemented in acloud-based software defined radio (SDR) platform, which is onepromising deployment paradigm for DIDO and MU-MAS systems.Alternatively, if it is possible to relax the constraints of the LTEstandard and develop slightly modified hardware and software for LTE UEsto support similar, but non-LTE-compliant DIDO or MU-MAS modes ofoperation, so as enable UEs to be able to operate in full LTE-compliantmode, or in a modified mode that supports non-LTE-compliant DIDO orMU-MAS operation. For example, this would enable another solution is toincrease the amount of CSI-RS to enable higher number of BTSs in thesystem. In another embodiment of the invention, different CSI-RSpatterns and periodicities are allowed as a means to increase the numberof supported BTSs per user-cluster. Such slight modifications to the LTEstandard may be small enough that existing LTE UE chipsets can be usedwith simply software modification. Or, if hardware modification would beneeded to the chipsets, the changes would be small.

1.2 Uplink MU-MAS CSI Feedback Methods within the LTE Standard

In the LTE and LTE-Advanced standards, the UE feedbacks information tothe BTS to communicate its current channel conditions as well as theprecoding weights for closed-loop transmission over the DL channel.Three different channel indicators are included in those standards [35]:

-   -   Rank indicator (RI): indicates how many spatial streams are        transmitted to given UE. This number is always equal or less        than the number of transmit antennas.    -   Precoding matrix indicator (PMI): is the index of the codebook        used for precoding over the DL channel.    -   Channel quality indicator (CQI): defines the modulation and        forward error correction (FEC) coding scheme to be used over the        DL to maintain predefined error rate performance for given        channel conditions

Only one RI is reported for the whole bandwidth, whereas the PMI and CQIreporting can be wideband or per sub-band, depending on thefrequency-selectivity of the channel. These indicators are transmittedin the UL over two different types of physical channels: i) the physicaluplink control channel (PUCCH), used only for control information; ii)the physical uplink shared channel (PUSCH), used for both data andcontrol information, allocated over one resource block (RB) and on asub-frame basis. On the PUCCH, the procedure to report the RI, PMI andCQI is periodic and the indicators can be either wideband (forfrequency-flat channels) or UE-selected on a sub-band basis (forfrequency-selective channels). On the PUSCH, the feedback procedure isaperiodic and can be UE-selected on a sub-band basis (forfrequency-selective channels) or higher-layer configured sub-band (e.g.,for transmission mode 9 in LTE-Advance with eight transmitters).

In one embodiment of the invention, the DIDO or MU-MAS system employsRI, PMI and CQI to report to BTSs and CP its current channel conditionsas well as precoding information. In one embodiment, the UE uses thePUCCH channel to report those indicators to the CP. In anotherembodiment, in case a larger number of indicators is necessary for DIDOprecoding, the UE employs the PUSCH to report additional indicators tothe CP. In case the channel is frequency-flat, the UE can exploit extraUL resources to report the PMI for a larger number of antennas in theDIDO systems. In one embodiment of the invention, the UE or BTSs or CPestimate the channel frequency selectivity and, in case the channel isfrequency-flat, the UE exploits the extra UL resources to report the PMIfor larger number of BTSs.

2. Downlink Open-Loop MU-MAS Precoding Methods in LTE

Open-loop MU-MAS precoding schemes can only be used in time-divisionduplex (TDD) systems employing RF calibration and exploiting channelreciprocity. The general mechanism of open-loop schemes in MU-MASsconsists of: i) the UEs send signaling information to the BTSs or CTRsover the UL; ii) the BTSs or CTRs exploit that signaling information toestimate the UL CSI from all UEs; iii) the BTSs or CTRs employ RFcalibration to convert the UL CSI into DL CSI; iv) the BTSs or CTRs sendthe DL CSI or codebook index to the CP via the BSN; v) based on that DLCSI, the CP calculates the precoding weights for data transmission overthe DL. Similarly to closed-loop MU-MAS precoding schemes, user-clusterscan be employed to reduce the amount of CSI to be estimated at the BTSsfrom the UEs, thereby reducing the computational burden at the BTSs aswell as the amount of signaling required over the UL. In one embodimentof the invention, open-loop precoding techniques are employed to sendsimultaneous non-interfering data streams from the BTSs to the UEs overthe DL channel.

In LTE there are two types of reference signal for the uplink channel[31,33,87]: i) sounding reference signal (SRS), used for scheduling andlink adaptation; ii) demodulation reference signal (DMRS), used for datareception. In one embodiment of the invention, the DMRS is employed inopen-loop precoding systems to estimate the UL channels form all UEs toall BTSs. In the time domain, the DMRS is sent at the fourth OFDM symbol(when a normal cyclic prefix is used) of every LTE slot (of duration 0.5msec). In the frequency domain, the DMRS sent over the PUSCH is mappedfor every UE to the same resource block (RB) used by that UE for UL datatransmission.

The length of the DMRS is M^(RS)=mN^(RB), where m is the number of RBsand N^(RB)=12 is the number of subcarriers per RB. To support multipleUEs, up to twelve DMRSs are generated from one base Zadoff-Chu [88] orcomputer-generated constant amplitude zero autocorrelation (CG-CAZAC)sequence, via twelve possible cyclic shifts of the base sequence. Basesequences are divided into 30 groups and neighbor LTE cells select DMRSfrom different groups to reduce inter-cell interference. For example, ifthe maximum number of resource blocks within one OFDM symbol is 110(i.e., assuming 20 MHz overall signal bandwidth), it is possible togenerate up to 110×30=3300 different sequences. We observe that the 30base sequences are not guaranteed to be orthogonal and are designed toreduce interference across cells, without eliminating it completely. Bycontrast, the 12 cyclic shifts of the same base sequence are orthogonal,thereby allowing up to 12 UEs to transmit in the UL over the same RBwithout interference. The value of cyclic shift to be used by every UEis provided by the BTS through the downlink control information (DCI)message sent over the PDCCH. The DCI in Release 8 consists of 3 bits,that enables the UE to use only up to 8 values of cyclic shift in thepool of twelve possible options.

The cyclic shifts of the base DMRS sequence are exploited in the presentinvention to enable MU-MIMO schemes over the UL channel as well as toestimate the CSI from multiple UEs for DL precoding when channelreciprocity is exploited in TDD mode. In one embodiment of theinvention, open-loop precoding methods are employed to send simultaneousnon-interfering data streams from the distributed BTSs to the UEs overthe DL channel. In a different embodiment of the invention, open-loopMU-MIMO methods are employed to receive simultaneous non-interferingdata streams from the UEs to the BTSs over the UL channel. The same CSIestimated over the UL from all active UEs can be used to compute thereceiver spatial filter for MU-MIMO operation in the UL as well as theweights for DL precoding. Since Release 8 defines only up to 8orthogonal DMRSs (due to limited DCI bits, as explained above), MU-MIMOschemes for the UL channel and MU-MAS precoding schemes for the DLchannel can support at most eight UEs, assuming all UEs utilize the fullUL bandwidth.

One way to increase the number of simultaneous UEs being served throughMU-MIMO in UL or MU-MAS precoding in DL is to multiplex the DMRS of theUEs over the frequency domain. For example, if 10 MHz bandwidth is usedin TDD mode, there are 50 RBs that can be allocated to the UEs. In thiscase, 25 interleaved RBs can be assigned to one set of eight UEs and theremaining 25 interleaved RBs to another set of UEs, totaling to 16 UEsthat can be served simultaneously. Then, the CSI is computed byinterpolating the estimates from the DMRS sent over interleaved RBs.Larger number of simultaneous UEs can be supported by increasing thenumber of interleaving patterns of the UL RBs. These patterns can beassigned to different UEs statically or dynamically according to certainfrequency hopping sequence. In one embodiment of the invention, DMRSsare assigned to the UEs over orthogonal interleaved RBs to increase thenumber of UEs to be supported via MU-MIMO or MU-MAS precoding. In thesame embodiment, the interleaved RBs are assigned statically. In anotherembodiment, the interleaved RBs are assigned dynamically according tocertain frequency hopping pattern.

An alternative solution is to multiplex the DMRS of different UEs in thetime domain. For example, the UEs are divided into different groups andthe DMRSs for those groups are sent over consecutive time slots (ofduration 0.5 msec each). In this case, however, it is necessary toguarantee that the periodicity of the DMRS assignment for differentgroups is lower than the channel coherence time of the fastest movingUE. In fact, this is necessary condition to guarantee that the channeldoes not vary for all UEs from the time the CSI is estimated via DMRS tothe time system transmits DL data streams to the UEs via DIDO precoding.In one embodiment of the invention, the system divides the active UEsinto groups and assigns the same set of DMRS to each group overconsecutive time slots. In the same embodiment, the system estimates theshortest channel coherence time for all active UEs and calculates themaximum number of UE groups as well as the periodicity of the DMRS timemultiplexing based on that information.

Another solution is to spatially separate different groups of UEsemploying the same sets of DMRSs. For example, the same set oforthogonal DMRSs can be used for all the UEs from differentantenna-subclusters in FIG. 11 identified by the same cell ID. In oneembodiment of the invention, groups of UEs employing the same set oforthogonal DMRSs are spatially separated to avoid interference betweenthe groups. In the same embodiment, the same set of orthogonal DMRSs isemployed by different antenna-subclusters identified by the same cellID. The MU-MAS may assign the UEs to “virtual cells” to maximize thenumber of DMRS that can be used in the UL. In one exemplary embodiment,the virtual cell is the area of coherence (described in relatedco-pending U.S. application Ser. No. 13/232,996, entitled “Systems andMethods to Exploit Areas of Coherence in Wireless Systems”) around theUE and the DIDO system generates up to 3300 areas of coherence fordifferent UEs. In another embodiment of the invention, each of the 30base sequences is assigned to a different antenna-cluster (clusters aredefined in related U.S. Pat. No. 8,170,081, issued May 1, 2012, entitled“System And Method For Adjusting DIDO Interference Cancellation Based OnSignal Strength Measurements”) to reduce inter-cluster interferenceacross adjacent antenna-clusters.

3. Uplink MU-MAS Methods in LTE

The present invention employs open-loop MU-MIMO schemes over the ULchannel to receive simultaneous UL data streams from all UEs to theBTSs. The UL open-loop MU-MIMO scheme consists of the following steps:i) UEs send signaling information and data payload to all BTSs; ii) theBTSs compute the channel estimations from all UEs using the signalinginformation; iii) the BTSs send the channel estimates and data payloadsto the CP; iv) the CP uses the channel estimates to remove inter-channelinterference from all UEs' data payloads via spatial filtering anddemodulates the data streams form all UEs. In one embodiment, theopen-loop MU-MIMO system employs single-carrier frequency divisionmultiple access (SC-FDMA) to increase the number of UL channels from theUEs to the BTSs and multiplex them in the frequency domain.

In one embodiment, synchronization among UEs is achieved via signalingfrom the DL and all BTSs are assumed locked to the same time/frequencyreference clock, either via direct wiring to the same clock or sharing acommon time/frequency reference, in one embodiment through GPSDO.Variations in channel delay spread at different UEs may generate jitteramong the time references of different UEs that may affect theperformance of MU-MIMO methods over the UL. In one embodiment, only theUEs within the same antenna-cluster (e.g., UEs in close proximity withone another) are processed with MU-MIMO methods to reduce the relativepropagation delay spread across different UEs. In another embodiment,the relative propagation delays between UEs are compensated at the UEsor at the BTSs to guarantee simultaneous reception of data payloads fromdifferent UEs at the BTSs.

The methods for enabling signaling information for data demodulationover the UL are the same methods used for signaling in the downlinkopen-loop DIDO scheme described at the previous section. The CP employsdifferent spatial processing techniques to remove inter-channelinterference from the UEs data payload. In one embodiment of theinvention, the CP employs non-linear spatial processing methods such asmaximum likelihood (ML), decision feedback equalization (DFE) orsuccessive interference cancellation (SIC) receivers. In anotherembodiment the CP employs linear filters such as zeros-forcing (ZF) orminimum mean squared error (MMSE) receivers to cancel co-channelinterference and demodulate the uplink data streams individually.

4. Integration with Existing LTE Networks

In the United States and other regions of the world, LTE networks arealready in operation or are in the process of being deployed and/orcommitted to be deployed. It would be of significant benefit to LTEoperators if they could gradually deploy DIDO or MU-MAS capability intotheir existing or already-committed deployments. In this way, they coulddeploy DIDO or MU-MAS in areas where it would provide the most immediatebenefit, and gradually expand the DIDO or MU-MAS capability to covermore their network. In time, once they have sufficient DIDO or MU-MAScoverage in an area, they can choose to cease using cells entirely, andinstead switch entirely to DIDO or MU-MAS and achieve much higherspectral density at much lower cost. Throughout this entire transitionfrom cellular to DIDO or MU-MAS, the LTE operator's wireless customerswill never see a loss in service. Rather, they'll simply see their datathroughput and reliability improve, while the operator will see itscosts decline.

There are several embodiments that would enable a gradual integration ofDIDO or MU-MAS into existing LTE networks. In all cases, the BTSs forDIDO or MU-MAS will be referred as DIDO-LTE BTSs and will utilize one ofthe LTE-compatible DIDO or MU-MAS embodiments described above, or otherLTE-compatible embodiments as they may be developed in the future. Or,the DIDO-LTE BTSs will utilize a slight variant of the LTE standard,such as those described above and the UEs will either be updated (e.g.if a software update is sufficient to modify the UE to be DIDO or MU-MAScompatible), or a new generation of UEs that are DIDO- orMU-MAS-compatible will be deployed. In either case, the new BTSs thatsupport DIDO or MU-MAS either within the constraints of the LTEstandard, or as a variant of the LTE standard will be referred to belowas DIDO-LTE BTSs.

The LTE standard supports various channel bandwidths (e.g., 1.4, 3, 5,10, 15 and 20 MHz). In one embodiment, an operator with an existing LTEnetwork would either allocate new bandwidth for the LTE-DIDO BTSs, orwould subdivide the existing LTE spectrum (e.g. 20 MHz could besubdivided into two 10 MHz blocks) to support conventional LTE BTSs in acellular configuration in one block of spectrum and DIDO LTE BTSs inanother block of spectrum. Effectively, this would establish twoseparate LTE networks, and UE devices would be configured to use one orthe other network, or select between the two. In the case of subdividedspectrum, the spectrum could be divided evenly between the conventionalLTE network and the DIDO-LTE BTS network, or unevenly, allocated morespectrum to whichever network could best utilize it given the level ofcellular LTE BTS and DIDO-LTE BTS deployment and/or UE usage patterns.This subdivision could change as needed over time, and at some point,when there are sufficient DIDO-LTE BTSs deployed to provide the same orbetter coverage as the cellular BTSs, all of the spectrum can beallocated to DIDO-LTE BTSs, and the cellular BTSs can be decommissioned.

In another embodiment, the conventional cellular LTE BTSs can beconfigured to be coordinated with the DIDO-LTE BTSs such that they sharethe same spectrum, but take turns using the spectrum. For example, ifthey were sharing the spectrum use equally, then each BTS network wouldutilize one 10 ms frame time in alternation, e.g. one 10 ms frame forthe cellular LTE BTS, followed by one 10 ms frame for the DIDO-LTE BTS.The frame times could be subdivided in unequal intervals as well. Thisinterval splitting could change as needed over time, and at some point,when there are sufficient DIDO-LTE BTSs deployed to provide the same orbetter coverage as the cellular BTSs, all of the time can be allocatedto DIDO-LTE BTSs, and the cellular BTSs can be decommissioned.

In another embodiment of the invention, DIDO or MU-MAS is employed asLOS or NLOS wireless backhaul to small cells in LTE and LTE-Advancednetworks. As small-cells are deployed in LTE networks, DIDO or MU-MASprovides high-speed wireless backhaul to those small cells. As thedemand for higher data rate increases, more small-cells are added to thenetwork until the wireless network reaches a limit where no moresmall-cells can be added in a given area without causing inter-cellinterference. In the same embodiment of the invention, DIDO-LTE BTSs areused to replace gradually small-cells, thereby exploiting inter-cellinterference to provide increased network capacity.

5. MU-MAS LTE Scheduler

In MU-MAS, distributed antennas or BTSs transmit simultaneous precodeddata streams to multiple UEs. As described in Related Patents andApplications, the number of BTSs must be equal or larger than the numberof UEs to enable simultaneous data transmissions. In practicaldeployments, the number of UEs may exceed the number of BTSs. In thiscase, the extra UEs can be selected for transmission at different timeslots or frequency bands according to certain scheduling policy. Thescheduler exploits the channel quality information of the UEs to decidethe best set of UEs to be serviced at a give time and frequency.Different scheduling methods are used in the present invention,including proportional fair scheduler, round-robin or greedy algorithms.

As described in the previous sections, the LTE standard defines twoparameters to inform the scheduler about the link quality of every UE:CQI and SRS. The CQI measures the quality of the DL channel and is fedback from the UE to the BTS. The SRS is signaling information sent fromthe UE to the BTS to measure the UL channel quality. Both indicatorsprovide information of the UL/DL channel quality over time and frequencydomains. In FDD systems, the DL scheduler must use the CQI asperformance measure, since the DL and UL channel quality may vary due todifferent carrier frequencies. In TDD mode, the DL schedule employseither the CSI or the SRS or combination of both to perform itsscheduling decision. The same performance metrics can be used for ULscheduling. In one embodiment of the invention, the MU-MAS scheduleremploys the CQI and SRS as performance metrics used by the schedulingalgorithm.

The MU-MAS described in the present invention enables one additionalchannel quality indicator not disclosed in prior art: the spatialselectivity indicator (SSI), described in related U.S. application Ser.No. 13/475,598, entitled “Systems and Methods to enhance spatialdiversity in distributed-input distributed-output wireless systems”. TheSSI can be computed based on the CSI obtained from all UEs via feedbackmechanisms or from the UL channel (applying UL/DL channel reciprocity).In one embodiment of the invention, the scheduler employs the SSI asperformance metric. The SSI is a measure of the spatial diversityavailable in the wireless link. The SSI depends on the spatialcharacteristics of the BTSs as well as the UEs. In one exemplaryembodiment of the invention, the scheduler obtains the SSI from all theUEs and schedules the UEs with the “optimal” SSI according to certainscheduling criterion. If more BTSs are available than the active BTSs,the users selection criterion described above is combined with theantenna selection method described in related U.S. application Ser. No.13/475,598, entitled “Systems and Methods to enhance spatial diversityin distributed-input distributed-output wireless systems”. In oneembodiment of the invention, the scheduler selects the optimal subset ofBTSs and UEs based on certain scheduling criterion.

With respect to FIGS. 9, 10 and 11, in certain scenarios there may notbe enough orthogonal signaling sequences to enable large number of BTSswithin the same antenna-cluster or antenna-subcluster. In this case,some level of interference may occur if additional BTSs are activated tocover regions with larger numbers of active UEs. In one embodiment ofthe invention, the scheduler measures the level of interference betweenantenna-clusters or antenna-subclusters and schedules the UEs tominimize the effect of that interference over the wireless link.

The antenna selection algorithm described in related U.S. applicationSer. No. 13/475,598, entitled “Systems and Methods to enhance spatialdiversity in distributed-input distributed-output wireless systems” isemployed in the present invention to select the optimal set of activeBTSs based on the SSI. This antenna selection algorithm, however, mayrequire high computational complexity as MU-MAS precoding processingmust be applied over all possible permutations of antenna subsets beforemaking a decision on the best subset based on the SSI performancemetric. In MU-MAS with large number of cooperative BTSs, thiscomputational burden may become expensive or untenable to achieve inpractical deployments. It is thus desirable to develop alternativetechniques to reduce the number of antenna subsets while maintaininggood performance of the antenna selection method. In one embodiment ofthe invention, the MU-MAS employs methods based on queuing of theantenna subset ID numbers, hereafter referred to as “antenna shufflingmethod”. In one embodiment of the invention, the antenna shufflingmethod subdivides the queue containing all possible antenna subset IDs(i.e., all possible permutations of active BTSs for given set ofavailable BTSs) into different groups and assigns different prioritiesto those groups. These groups are defined to assign fair chances to allsubset IDs to be selected, but the SSI metric is computed only forlimited number of subsets (e.g., those ones with highest priority)thereby reducing computational complexity. In one exemplary embodiment,the queue of subset ID is divided into three groups where each group isassigned a different rule: i) group #1 contains the IDs with highestpriority which are pulled out of the group only in case a new subsetwith higher priority is identified; ii) group #2 where new antennasubsets (selected from group #3) are included at every iteration of themethod; iii) group #3 where the antenna subset IDs are shuffledaccording to round-robin policy. All subset IDs within group #1 and #2are sorted at each iteration of the method based on their priority togive opportunity to subsets IDs from group #2 to be upgraded to group#1. The SSI is computed only for the subsets within groups #1 and #2 andthe antenna selection algorithm is applied only to those subsets.

6. MU-MAS LTE User Equipment

The present invention comprises of different designs of the LTE UE. Inone embodiment, the UE is an LTE UE that is compatible with the MU-MASemploying precoding as described above and depicted in FIG. 13.

In a different embodiment, the UE 1401 connects to different devices1402 and 1403 through a first network interface 1404 (e.g., Wi-Fi, USB,Ethernet, Bluetooth, optical fiber, etc.) and to the MU-MAS through asecond network interface 1405 as shown in FIG. 14. The UE in FIG. 14 isequipped with two different network interfaces wherein each networkinterface comprises of one or multiple antennas (although in alternativeembodiments, first network interface 1404 may be a wired interfacewithout antennas). The antennas of the first network interface aredenoted with circles, whereas the antennas of the second networkinterface are denoted with triangles. In the same embodiment, the secondnetwork interface supports MU-MAS precoding, MU-MAS implemented withLTE-compliant protocols, or MU-MAS (implemented with or withoutLTE-compliant protocols) and an alternative network. In the sameembodiment, the alternative network is a cellular network, an LTEnetwork or Wi-Fi network. In the same embodiment, the UE works witheither and/or both MU-MAS and/or the alternative network and the UEselects either MU-MAS or the alternative network based on some criteria.In the same embodiment, the criteria are: i) whether only one network isavailable and is chosen; ii) whether one network has better performance;iii) whether one network is more economical; iv) whether one network isless congested; v) whether one network uses less UE resources.

In one embodiment of the invention, the UE 1501 is in a case thatphysically attaches to the user device 1502 as depicted in FIG. 15. Inthe same embodiment, the case serves as a decorative addition to theuser device. In another embodiment, the case serves to protect the userdevice from physical damage. The UE comprises of battery 1503, and oneor multiple network interfaces 1504.

In one embodiment, the UE electronics are embedded within a case. In thesame embodiment, the UE electronics include a battery 1503. The batteryincludes a power charger coupling through a physical electrical contactor a wireless contact. Exemplary power couplings are conductive,inductive, RF, light, or thermal, but power couplings are not limitedthese approaches. In the same embodiment, the UE electronics are coupledto receive power from the user device. This power coupling is through aphysical contact or through an inductive or wireless contact. In thesame embodiment, the user device is coupled to receive power from theMU-MAS UE. This coupling is through a physical contact or through aninductive or wireless contact. In a different embodiment, the same powercharger powers both the user device and the MU_MAS UE.

In one embodiment of the invention, the UE is configured to communicateto the user device. In the same embodiment, the UE can be reset (e.g.,via switch, or by removing power) so the user device can initiallyconnect to it, and once the connection is established, the UE can beconfigured by the user device. Such configuration includes configuring aprivate password and/or other security protocols. In a differentembodiment, the UE includes a means to be configured to communicate withthe user device. Such configuration is done via a communications port toanother device, wherein the communications port is USB, or via controlsand/or buttons on the UE, or via display, wherein buttons or touch inputare used.

In another embodiment, the same RF chain is used for MU-MAScommunications as well as for the alternative network. In anotherembodiment, a different RF chain is used for MU-MAS communications andthe alternative network.

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We claim:
 1. A multiple antenna system (MAS) with multiuser (MU)transmissions (“MU-MAS”) comprising: a plurality of antennas or wirelesstransceiver devices (BTSs) distributed throughout a coverage areawithout cells, all sharing the same cell identifier (cell ID); aplurality of wireless user devices (UEs) communicatively coupled to theBTSs; the MU-MAS chooses a subset of UEs for downlink and uplink datacommunications based on the spatial diversity between the UEs and BTSs;and a spatial processing unit exploits interference among the BTSs tocreate a plurality of concurrent non-interfering downlink (DL) or uplink(UL) data links, including control channel links, between the BTSs andthe subset of UEs within the same frequency band.
 2. The system as inclaim 1 wherein the MU-MAS chooses the first subset of UEs to scheduledata communications.
 3. The system as in claim 1 wherein the datacommunications capacity of the MU-MAS is shared among the plurality ofUEs.
 4. The system as in claim 1 wherein the MU-MAS chooses a secondsubset of UEs at a different time interval than when the MU-MAS choosesthe first subset of UEs.
 5. The system as in claim 4 wherein the firstand second subsets of UEs are disjoint.
 6. The system as in claim 4wherein the first and second subsets of UEs contain at least one commonUE.
 7. A method implemented within a MU-MAS comprising: distributing aplurality of BTSs throughout a coverage area without cells, all sharingthe same cell ID; communicatively coupling a plurality of UEs to theBTSs; the MU-MAS choosing a subset of UEs for downlink and uplink datacommunications based on the spatial diversity between the UEs and BTSs;and exploiting interference among the BTSs to create a plurality ofconcurrent non-interfering DL or UL data links, including controlchannel links, between the BTSs and the subset of UEs within the samefrequency band.
 8. The method as in claim 7 wherein the MU-MAS choosesthe first subset of UEs to schedule data communications.
 9. The methodas in claim 7 wherein the MU-MAS shares its data communications capacityamong the plurality of UEs.
 10. The method as in claim 7 wherein theMU-MAS chooses a second subset of UEs at a different time interval thanwhen the MU-MAS chooses the first subset of UEs.
 11. The method as inclaim 10 wherein the first and second subsets of UEs are disjoint. 12.The method as in claim 10 wherein the first and second subsets of UEscontain at least one common UE.
 13. A multiple antenna system (MAS) withmultiuser (MU) transmissions (“MU-MAS”) comprising: a plurality ofantennas or wireless transceiver devices (BTSs) distributed throughout acoverage area without cells, all sharing the same cell identifier (cellID); a plurality of wireless user devices (UEs) communicatively coupledto the BTSs; the MU-MAS chooses a first subset of BTSs for downlink anduplink data communications based on the spatial diversity between theUEs and BTSs; and a spatial processing unit exploits interference amongthe BTSs to create a plurality of concurrent non-interfering downlink(DL) or uplink (UL) data links, including control channel links, betweenthe first subset of BTSs and the UEs within the same frequency band. 14.The system as in claim 13 wherein the MU-MAS chooses the first subset ofBTSs to schedule data communications.
 15. A multiple antenna system(MAS) with multiuser (MU) transmissions (“MU-MAS”) comprising: aplurality of antennas or wireless transceiver devices (BTSs) distributedthroughout a coverage area without cells, all sharing the same cellidentifier (cell ID); a plurality of wireless user devices (UEs)communicatively coupled to the BTSs; the MU-MAS chooses a first subsetof UEs and a first subset of BTSs for downlink and uplink datacommunications based on the spatial diversity between the UEs and BTSs;and a spatial processing unit exploits interference among the BTSs tocreate a plurality of concurrent non-interfering downlink (DL) or uplink(UL) data links, including control channel links, between the firstsubset UEs and the first subset of BTSs within the same frequency band.16. The system as in claim 15 wherein the data communications capacityof the MU-MAS is shared among the plurality of UEs.